Synthesis and Electrochemical Properties of Carbon Dots/Manganese Dioxide (CQDs/MnO2) Nanoflowers for Supercapacitor Applications

Flower-like carbon dots/manganese dioxide (CQDs/MnO2) nanocomposites were successfully synthesized and investigated as novel electrode materials for supercapacitors. CQDs were uniformly distributed on the transparent petal of delta-MnO2 and a high specific surface area of 168.8 m(2) g(-1) was achieved for the CQDs/MnO2 sample with 10 wt% CQDs (CQDs/MnO2-10). Furthermore, the CQDs/MnO2-10 nanoflower electrode exhibited outstanding pseudocapacitance performance, including a high specific capacitance, good rate capability (210 F g(-1) at 20 A g(-1)), and excellent charge-discharge stability (90.3% retention rate after 10,000 cycles). In addition, capacitances of 345, 333, 318, 306, and 296 F g(1) can be acquired at rates of 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4 A g(-1), respectively, which is much higher than the specific capacitances of most reported carbon coated MnO2. These excellent electrochemical properties indicate that the CQDs/MnO2 nanoflowers were efficient active materials and have a highly promising prospect for future high-performance electrochemical energy storage systems. (C) 2017 The Electrochemical Society.